Your letters
Email: editor@organicnz.org.nz
Post: PO Box 9693, Marion Square, Wellington, 6141.
WINNING LETTER
COUCH AND KIKUYU
I always learn so much from your magazine. Thank you.
In Dr Tim Jenkins’ article ‘Reduced tillage for organic matter’ (ONZ September/October 2020), he said: “Yes, no-till organics is possible. In fact, on a home garden scale, it is quite easy to achieve with regular mulching. Mulching suppresses weed growth. The trick is to ensure first that you get rid of difficult perennial weeds such as couch or twitch grass.”
How do you get rid of couch or kikuyu please? I’ve been mulching, carpeting and digging for years, and have not won yet! Couch is in my vegetable garden, where it was part of the lawn when we came to this property 26 years ago. The kikuyu springs up mostly also in the lawn in the middle of the garden – I am sure it drops from the sky!
My vegetable garden is close to the house, and very productive. I established it by using old carpeting to make the pathways, wooden planks (untreated, and collected from the wonderful inorganic rubbish collections!), and compost I make myself.
Whenever I am going to plant seedlings, I add compost and worm castings from my two large worm
